Maritime Union of Australia. (2024). Submission on the draft Australian Government guidance for removal of oil and gas property and sea dumping of infrastructure in Commonwealth waters [Submission to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources; Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water; National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority]
This contribution from the MUA was made in response to draft Commonwealth guidance on the removal of offshore oil and gas infrastructure and the use of sea‑dumping approvals.
Its significance lies in the risk that the draft guidance would lower the threshold for leaving infrastructure in situ, effectively shifting full removal from a legal baseline to a discretionary option.
The union warns that this approach could rapidly expand abandonment proposals across existing and future projects, yet the guidance, and the union’s concerns, have remained unresolved for an extended period creating uncertainty at the very moment major decommissioning decisions are being made.